Nerve-wracking day for Andretti Green

May 16, 2005|By Michael Andretti Special to The Morning Call - Freelance

Editor's Note: Michael Andretti, co-owner of cars driven by pole winner Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon and Bryan Herta, watched all four qualify Sunday for the 89th running of the Indianapolis 500. This is the second in a series of columns by the Nazareth native.

It was a hectic day. It was nerve-wracking. We had four different scenarios, four different cars, four different ways to make decisions.

In the end, we made the right decisions for Tony [Kanaan] and the team. We got Tony on the pole. We saw Danica Patrick had the speed, then she slipped on the first lap. Then the Penske cars came out late two years ago, he was knocked off right at the end by Helio [Castroneves] and we were feeling a little deja vu there for a second. But when we saw Helio's first two laps, it made us feel a lot better and relieved. [Castroneves withdrew a time that was good for fourth and slipped to fifth on his final effort.] I was so happy for Tony because it was a long day.

The weather changed but I think that's where experience came in. We didn't panic -- Tony especially. He was really good and cool about it. He's like, "I know we're not quick today" on Thursday when it was hot.

We're not going to touch the car because we know we have a good one. It was just conditions caught us out. When the conditions were like they were today, it came right to his car. I think that's where experience came in and it was the right move.

We had a problem with Dario [Franchitti] on his first run, then he turned a practice lap that was good enough. The second run, we thought we could do better. I think we made the right decisions, even with Dario to make a third run, because he moved up a couple of spots [actually from seventh to sixth].

I knew the new qualifying format was going to be that way, with each car having three attempts a day as strategy dictated. It's great for the fans.

I knew we had a pretty good one with Tony early but he got on it a little too fast on his last warmup lap and used up the tires a little bit. We might have had another two-tenths of a mile-an-hour average better if we counted that practice lap instead of the last one.

I was relieved when the Rahal team didn't send Danica back out and I was surprised they didn't.

Now we have to prepare four race cars for the race and our people will be working flat-out to do it. We have Dan [Wheldon at 16th] and Bryan [Herta at 18th] who aren't so happy right now, but they know we can get them up there, too.